The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-05-28

This "pauper labor" halucinatlon lies al
the bottom Of the protective idea. The
protectionist charges the tree trader with
being Visionary" "theorist," doc
trinaire," and assumes 10 himself the airs
OF practical man"-a "sold mana
man who, undecelved by shadows, grasps
the substance of things The idea that
| free trade between high and low wage paw
ing nations would reduces the higher 10 a
level with the lower wage, Is the ground
and pillar Of protection, and II Is the most
groundless vision-the most bottomless
theory that ever invaded and enthralled the
minds of men. In the history of tie world
there Is not fact to support it. When In
the tide Of time was labor ever pauperized
because one people traded with ano her?
The very reverse is, and always has been,
true. Cast the minds eye over Europe,
and we see that just In proportion as the
tariff Is increased the wages of labor are
diminished. The tariff of Russia Is high.
est and wages Of her labor are lowest of
any in Europe. The tariff of Germany Is
about half AS high as Russia's, and wages
in Germany are 100 per cent higher than
wages In Russia. The tariff of Belgium
and the Netherlands is about half as high
as the tariff of Germany, and wages in
Belgium and the Netherlands are about 100
per cent higher than wages in Germany.
The Tariff of England has not the slightest
shred of protection in ii, and wages in Eng.
land are still higher than in Belgium and
the Netherlands That is In the nations
similarly situated, the lower the tariff the
higher the wages until England the only
free trade nation of Europe, is the highest
wage paying nation of Europe The con-
verse of this is equally true. The higher
the tariff the lower the wages until that
labor which is best protected" is precisely
that which is most pauperized. In China,
where labor has been protected for ages to
the absolute exclusion of all foreign trade,
the laborer receives but six cents per day.
There may be other reasons that have re-
duced the wages of labor in China, but
none so potent as the absolute prohibition
of foreign trade. There may be other rea-
sons that have produced high wages In
England, bu; none so potent as the absolute
freedom of trade. Were it not foreign to
the purpose | might here show hat free
dom of trade as necessarily energ izes labor,
and raises its wages as that result follows
cause; but 1t is sufficient for my present
purpose to show that protection does not
raise wages; that free trade does not pull
them down, and that the assertion that free.
dom of trade would reduce our laborers to
the condition of "paupers like those of Eu-
rope" is pure assumption, without the
slightest Pigment Of fact to stand upon.
In countries like Americl, Australia,
Tasmania, New Iceland, the Sandwich Is.
lands &c, where the Anglo Saxon crowds
the native populations out, and the laborer
stands in sight of 100 acres of free land, he
cannot long be kept a servant, and wages
will be high tariff or no tariff. But why
of all the OLD countries-of all the nations
of Europe, Asia or AfricG-is it that the
only free trade nation is the highest wage
paying nation England is the most densely
populated of all the RatiOns-three times as
densely populated as India or Climatic
very spot where We would expect to find
laborers Crowding each other ana underbid-
ding for employment; where we would
expect to find pauperism and low wages.
Yet here we tiud the highest paid labor in
Europe, Asia or Africa; the highest paid,
because for forty years she has had abso-
lutte free trade. BY this means only she
giyes her labor employment. BY trad.
ing freely with the "pauper" labor of the
world she has doubled the wages of her
own labor during these forty years. All the
nations protect themselves az linst England.
She throws her ports freely open to the
world; and the wages OF her labOrers in
crease This fact is refutatiOn Of the
wotectionist theory that free trade de-
grades the laborer-is demonstration that
the theory rests in bottOmless folly.
BYsTANDER.